Genetic material capable of producing antibiotic-resistant superbugs has been identified in the United Kingdom’s largest lake.
Lough Neagh provides drinking water to approximately 40 per cent of Northern Ireland’s population.
Water samples collected by Watershed Investigations revealed genes that could confer immunity to multiple antibiotic classes.
The range from standard penicillins to carbapenems, medications reserved for treating life-threatening infections when all other options have been exhausted.
Professor Will Gaze, a microbiology expert at the University of Exeter, explained the gravity of the carbapenem findings.
“Carbapenems are known as the last-line-of-defence antibiotics because they are only used when other treatments have failed,” he said.
“If pathogens are resistant to the carbapenem antibiotics, they’re resistant to many others too.”
Designated bathing areas in Lough Neagh were similarly affected.
The UK’s largest lake, which supplies drinking water to thousands, contains genes capable of creating antibiotic-resistant superbugs
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“If a swimmer swallowed 30ml of the lough water, they’d get a pretty good exposure to carbapenem-resistance genes,” Professor Gaze told The Guardian.
“We don’t know what impact that has on the gut microbiome or risk of infection.”
According to UK Health Security Agency figures, England records nearly 400 resistant infections each week, with an estimated 2,379 deaths attributed to them in 2024.
The World Health Organisation has characterised antimicrobial resistance as “one of the most urgent, complex and frightening health challenges of our time”.
Antimicrobial resistance is described as one of ‘the most urgent, complex and frightening health challenges of our time’
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Alongside the resistance genes, investigators found markers indicating contamination from human, bovine and pig waste in the water samples.
Sewage and agricultural runoff create optimal conditions for superbugs to develop, introducing pathogens, antibiotic residues and resistant bacteria into waterways where they can combine and proliferate.
Andrew Muir, the minister for the Department for the Environment in Northern Ireland, said more than 20 million tonnes of untreated sewage enter the country’s waterways annually.
Roughly 30 per cent of Northern Ireland Water’s storm overflows discharge raw sewage into Lough Neagh, with 106 discharging directly and 618 indirectly via rivers.
Roughly 30 per cent of Northern Ireland Water’s storm overflows discharge raw sewage into Lough Neagh
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A water industry expert cautioned that monitoring equipment was being fitted to storm overflows but not at wastewater treatment plant outfalls, where greater volumes may flow unchecked.
“Much more raw sewage is getting into rivers and lakes than the water company estimates imply,” the expert said.
Professor Davey Jones of Bangor University described sewer networks as a “mega-network of an epic breeding ground” for resistant microbes, warning that even treated wastewater continuously releases antimicrobial resistance genes.
Northern Ireland Water acknowledged that “decades of underinvestment” had left the utility with minimal capacity for infrastructure improvements, and the nation’s Fiscal Council confirmed insufficient funding for necessary wastewater upgrades.
